This invention relates to a laser amplifier chain and more particularly to a manner in which laser amplifiers are arranged in a chain for efficiently amplifying a beam from a relatively low-power laser to obtain a high-power output beam.
In a situation, for example, where a high-power tunable laser is desired while only a relatively low-power tunable dye master oscillator is available, it has been known to make use of a pump laser such as a copper vapor laser to drive an amplifier. It has also been known for such a situation to make use of not only one amplifier but also a series of amplifiers forming a chain. No systematic studies have been made, however, regarding how to improve the efficiency of such a laser amplifier chain.